This work presents a putative reconstruction of the emergence of Islam in Arabia in late antiquity, testing the hypothesis that Islam is historically linked to Jewish-Christianity.

The study inevitably raises some controversial issues but attempts to address them in an affable way. In a sense, it defends the dictum of the Muslims that their religion is older than both rabbinic Judaism and ecclesiastical Christianity. Conversely, it deals with the Qur’an as a literary phenomenon, not as the eternal inimitable word of God, as revealed to Muhammad. The study seeks to break free of the discourse of both Western historiography and Islamic tradition. Hence, it refutes (Western) notions that the Qur’an was composed either through selective borrowing from Jewish or Christian canonical and non-canonical material or through alteration of a specific subtext. It reconstructs from the Qur’anic text an integral creed - the way of the righteous patriarchs. This creed can be traced back through Jewish-Christian (herein called Apostolic Nasorean) sects to the Essenes. The line of argument is that Jewish Christianity did not vanish altogether in the fourth century but survived into the sixth century in Transjordan. There, its moral code was adopted by Prophet Shu’ayb of Qur’anic prominence, who went on to promote it among the people of Midian. The descendents of Shu’ayb’s congregation imparted this “righteous way” to Muhammad and his fellow morality-seekers. Islam then emerged from Muhammad’s application of said moral code to conditions at Mecca. Regarding methodology, this study attempts to redress the obscurity of Jewish Christianity through reliance on comparative religion, comparative culture, archeology, and epigraphy. It further employs text critical and historical-comparative linguistic methods to discussion of the Qur’an.